Tuesday, November 18, 2008

And this is a surprise?

So the caring, sharing Tories are a thing of the past. That presumes that there was any substance in the Conservative claims that they would match Labour spending (such as it is) or that 'one nation Conservatism' was back in vogue) . Did anyone ever believe such nonsense? Ex-PR man David Cameron knows how to spin a story and whilst Labour's ratings may have been in free fall the Tories knew that the bulk of the UK electorate would not wear a return to the Party's default mode of service-cutting and attacks on working people. A crisis and division within the Tories own ranks has sent Cameron and co scuttling for their political comfort zone and towards an appeal to their real base: big business and sections of the upper middle class. There is one area, of course, where government could start saving - the £3.3 billion per annum spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. What are the odds on that being high up the list?